Toxicology test shows livestock feed caused death of dogs found on side of the road

By Connor Hoffman
connor.hoffman@lockportjournal.com

Mar 8, 2019

After receiving the results of a toxicology tests, a case involving the cause of two dead dogs found on Jan. 3 in the Town of Lockport seems to be coming to a close.

Bruce Elliott, captain of the Niagara County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Bureau, said the test showed the animals ingested a large quantity of a feed pellet usually used for livestock or equine animals. The toxicology tests were done by the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and NCSO received the results at the end of February.

"It's not safe for dogs or cats or domestic animals," Elliott said. "It can be harmful to domestic animals when ingested in large quantities."

Elliott said the investigation is ongoing because "we don't really know why someone would leave them on the side of the road."

He added that "accidents can happen" and that if the animals were sick the owner should have taken them to get proper medical care, or buried them somewhere properly, rather than leave them on the side of the road.

"That's a little bit odd and disconcerting," Elliott said.

The Niagara County SPCA had raised the possibility of a toxin after finding what Executive Director Tim Brennan described as "a foreign object," but Elliott said the test did not observe any drugs, pesticides or industrial compounds.

Although the investigation is continuing, Elliot said he expects it to probably end soon if further tips from the public don't come in, adding tips they have received to this point have not panned out.

The 2-year-old Lhasa Apso and a 4-year-old wire-harried terrier were found in trash bags off Wilson Road on Jan. 3, with a responding sheriff's deputy observing that the dogs appeared to be beaten and burned.

After an SPCA veterinarian perform a necropsy on the Lhasa Apso, they found singeing of its fur, but not down to the dog's skin and the dog did not have broken bones or bruises.

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